SLCS signed by Noam Chomsky

This statement has been submitted on 14 September 2009. Thank you to all the signatories.

An activist helping with the campaign was able to personally meet and hand the statement directly to Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Monday 14 September 2009.

This statement was written in late May. Since then points d) and e) need to be updated:

d) Five of the Tamil doctors detained by the Government of Sri Lanka have now been released on conditional bail. We call on the unconditional release of Dr’sThangamutha Sathiyamoorthy, Veerakaththi Shanmugarajah, Thurairaja Varatharajah, Illancheliyan Pallavan, Sinnathurai Sivapalan and for the where-abouts of the remaining doctors held in detention to be revealed;

e) Support Amnesty International in its call for the release of journalist Mr. J.S. Tissainayagam imprisoned by the Government of Sri Lanka for 20 years.

*** Full Text of Original Statement Launched on 27th May 2009 and Submitted on 14th Sep 2009 ***

We are Australian citizens who share a deep concern about the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka now affecting more than 300,000 people, according to United Nations (UN) estimates.

We call on the Government of Australia to demand the Government of Sri Lanka immediately:

a) give the UN, International Committee of the Red Cross, non-governmental organisations and all local and international media unrestricted access to the Tamil civilians trapped in the former war zone and those indefinitely confined in detention camps for internally displaced people;

b) treat all prisoners of war including members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), former members, suspected combatants, non-combatant cadres and their families according to international law, including the Geneva Conventions, which have been ratified by the Government of Sri Lanka and allow independent international monitors to be part of the Government of Sri Lanka’s screening process;

c) release the over 300,000 Tamils from government controlled concentration camps and allow them to return to their homes;

e) release journalist Mr. J.S. Tissainayagam detained without charges by the Sri Lankan government since March 7th 2008.

We strongly urge the Government of Australia to support the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s calls for an international independent investigation into alleged war crimes by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.

Furthermore, we recognise the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been subject to ethnic discrimination by successive Sri Lankan governments since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948.

We acknowledge that all people, including the Tamils, have the right to self-determination and must freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

We urge the international community to support and facilitate a political solution that addresses the self-determination aspirations of Tamils and protects the human rights of all Sri Lankans.

All Sri lankan Tamils are experiencing hardship in Sri Lanka and all over the world. In the name of destroying terrorism thousands of innocent civilians lost their lives within five months in Sri Lanka. Tamils want justice with dignity. Tamils need political solution immediately other wise many more innocent Tamils will be killed without any justice.

The Sri Lankan government said it was engaged on a war on terrorism and killed more than 300000 Tamils, 20000 of them in the last 3 or 4 days. They said they are liberating the Tamils and more than 300000 Tamils are now in concentration camos. The rest of the Tamils are in open prison. They said the National question will be solved after defeating the LTTE. They now claim to have defeated the LTTE but yet no solutionto the Tamils.

300,000 people are trapped in internment camps in Sri Lanka. Women are systematically raped, children are abducted and disappearing by government aligned paramilitaries, people are dying from starvation. NGOs are being denied access to the internment camps in Sri Lanka. The government has also forced the ICRC to leave and thousands of critically injured people are dying in the former conflict zone with no one to evacuate them or treat them. Please we want justice. we want tamil eelam.

please include my name as a signatory to the sri lankan crisis statement.

also, a no confidence motion should be passed on un secy. Banki Moon and his trusted representative Vijey Nambiar who was shuttling between sri lanka, india and uno consulting his brother Satheesh Nambiar who is paid by Sri Lanka for consultations.

The continued genocide and human rights violations should be stopped. The international community should take action to monitor the situation and to provide humanitarian assistance. What is Sri Lanka trying to hide by not giving the international media and the international aid agencies unrestricted access? If Sri Lanka believes it did not get involved in war crimes, then why are they opposed to an international investigation? Using chemcial weapons, indiscriminate aerial bombardment since 1984, mass graves at Chemmani, shooting surrendering political wing members, holding doctors in undisclosed locations, etc are all war crimes. Why doesn’t the international community and the UN take action?

This is a terrible situation. Why hasnt international media been granted unlimited access to report from these detention camps? Has anyone taken a survey of the remaining villages in the North and East of Sri Lanka to see how many civilians have disappeared?

This is not a political or terrorist issue.This is a Humanitarian issue.Unarmed civilians who have no direct links to the conflict.They have been starved for years and many have been executed.Even in worst prison conditions I have not read any where even prisoners are starved in modern history except in Nazi Camps under Hitler.Shame on civilisation.Shame on all right thinking governments to watch humanity destroyed.Own citizens are starved and finally slaughtered.Shame on Sri lanka and tha world not criticising or condemning these acts.Fight the Stong people who have the guts.Not innocent kids and women and old folkes and people who have had no basic needs for years.

Please take immediate action without fail. Now they are distroying WMD in the camps to prove they have not used banned cluster bombs. Its obvious they are telling lies as usual.India is supporting Sri Lanka because they aided the war on tamils.

This is one of the most serious violations of the humanitarian laws after the second world war and such a tragedy occurring in this modern world with various conventions in place is unbelievable. These 300,000 odd people are innocent and have nothing to do with any wrong doing and why they should be locked up in this unfair and inhuman manner? Also unbelievable are the plight of the three doctors who should be rewarded for their galantry rather than being locked up. This is a violation of the Tokyo Declaration

You do not need to belong to the Tamil community to understand the untold suffering of Tamil civlians in Sri Lanka. The only qualification that you need to rise up and support the cause is to be a decent human being.

Please help the Tamils in Sri Lanka to be able to live with dignity and with freedom in their own land. They are not beggars to be kept in camps surrounded by razor wire fences, they are well respected citizens who were able to live with dignity before the war. They have gone through untold hardship with loss of family members and loss of limbs, and deserve care and support at this time. Please help them to recover from all this pain that they are undergoing.

The tragedy of refugees in Sri Lanka, hidden from the eyes of the world
by Nirmala Carvalho
There is still no precise data on the number of people living in the centres. Colombo media do not speak of the plight of the internally displaced persons. An operator allowed into the Chettikulam camp states: “The Colombo government is only concerned with one thing: finding remaining members of the LTTE and killing them”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – “Small children are suffering malnutrition and a lack of medicines. There are young girls who are pregnant, between 17 and 19 years of age, in need of care… the government has no capacity at all to handle this massive problem, no news so far has come out in the news papers in Sri Lanka, the rest of the nation is kept in dark regarding the situation of the refugees”.
This is how a social worker recently describes the situation for the internally displaced persons (Idp) held in the refugee camp in Chettikulam 12 kilometres from Vavuniya to AsiaNews. He had visited the camp before (see AsiaNews 05/06/2009) and now he says: “some of our friends returned there yesterday and report that the situation is still serious”.
Prasanna – a pseudonym to protect his anonymity – says that in Chettikulam there are more than 300 thousand people and added to that number, refugees who live in smaller camps dotted around the area of Mannar and Jaffna. But he adds that “there is still no data on the precise number of the refugees”.
“No one speaks of the IDPs – says Prasanna – not a single photo is allowed out of the camp, no papers write anything about it, people do not know about the great tragedy is going on in their country”.
The social worker appeals to the international community, “and in particular to the Indian government”, to show greater concern for the plight of the refugees. “The only interest of the Colombo government – says Prasanna – is to find more Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam members who are living in the camp and kill them”.
UNHCR has taken satellite photos of the area occupied by the Chettikulam camp, “an immense area subdivided into different and separate zones”, the AsiaNews source explains. “The military brought us to one are and told us to help the people there. We have not been allowed to visit other zones. The area is so vast that it is impossible to estimate how many people are being held there”.http://new.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15561

The world tested all its weapons on tamils through GOSL, 200 billions dollars on war, 3000 times air strike-more than the explosive used in Hiroshima, cluster bombs, chemical bombs, 5000-6000 shelled daily, over 50,000 people were killed within three month, No security council meeting held, but when North korea tested one bomb underground, immediate meeting held. Why? can ban ki or akashi or any other leaders have answer? Now shelling is over but killing continue in concentration camps

If you killed my brother and raped my sister in front of me and come back again to kill my younger brother and sister would you just stand and watch or take arm to defend your loved one? What will you do Mr.Obama,Mr.Gordon Brown,Mr.Ban Ki Moon,Hillary Clionton and you world leaders.

If you people stand and watch the above babarian act on your sister and brother in the name of prevailing Justice than LTTE is wrong for taking arms,but if you cry and retaliate against the babarians without bothering the law as your ultimate goal at that time is just to save your brother and sister than LTTE is the most daring and loyal big brothers and sisters that had emerged in this world.The emerging of LTTEs are the consequences of babarianism of Sinhalese army,thugs,monk and the sinhalese people towards Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1948 till now.

Those Tamil people burried underneath their motherland of Eezham will get their justice trough the Tamil people who are living on the ground of this world. JUSTICE may be blind at this time but it can be seen in the Dark very Soon.

Terrorism did in Sri Lanka did not begin with the LTTE – it began in the 1950s and the terrorists were the Sri Lankan military. Terrorism in Sri Lanka did not end with the LTTE surrender – it continues today.
Sri Lankas Tamil population continues to be terrorised, tortured and killed by the army that is supposed to protect them. Those who supply weapons to the Sri Lankan army – are aiding acts of terrorism.

The Tamil population must be free to determine whether or not they wish to remain part of a Singhalese dominated nation.

The Eelam Tamil people wanted to live with dignity and they wanted to
manage their own affairs.
The Eelam Tamils overwhelmingly voted for self Governemnt.
Under the cloak of terrorism The GOSL unleashed their genocide program with help of various world powers.
The Whole world looked with their open eyes the massacre of 10s of 1000s of innocent civilians, who were all terrorists from unborn child to meak and infirm old people.
If anyone is humane, the only thing they need to do is to tighten the screws on Sri Lanka and tell them “DO IT OR WE WILL DO IT FOR U”.
THEY ALL SOFT PADDLE UNTIL AT LEAST ANOTHER 200,000 ARE
SLAUGHTERED IN THE INTERNMENT CAMPS.
Come on world!! open up ur hearts.

It’s mere waste of time & energy. It’s easy to wake up a man who is snoring than trying to wake up a world that is sleeping (pretending). This is because they are deaf, dumb & blind to genocide which the world created for their own benefit. Humanitarianism, terrorism, can the (un)educated wise explain the meaning. Lip service & no action is only to help finish their aim in no time by the world helping to keep people in concentration camps & UN to drain so much of hard earned money & be given the boot. Any one willing to go for a free air ride to see what, return to talk what.

The world is watching the Tamils being slowly eradicated from Sri Lanka. The whole of Jaffna peninsula is like an occupied territory plus the camps with over 300,000 Tamils and the rest of Vanni is due to be colonised. It has been planned very carefully and even the moderate Sinhalese are keeping quiet!

Freedom does come with some responsibilities but the burden on the Lankan govt is to make “hate speech” Laws & then prove journalist Tissainayagam incited violence, not to use terrorist laws to subvert Lanka’s constitutional protections. If Judge Deepali Wijesundara belongs to any international associations, I hope they censure her.

If the violence and injustice meted out to the Tamils of Sri Lanka is allowed to stand, it will blight not only the future of that country but many others where governments may take note of the precedent. These are dangerous developments, and to oppose them, and offer solidarity with the Tamils, must be regarded as urgent priorities for anyone committed to justice and human rights.

GOSL imposed number of rules and military action silent the people who against the brutal system of mono culture, especially for the minorities, country could be the next military regime in Indian Ocean.